par Ricquier, Birgit 
Référence The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, John Wiley & Sons
Publication Publié, 2020-11-09
Référence The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, John Wiley & Sons
Publication Publié, 2020-11-09
Partie d'ouvrage collectif
| Résumé : | Languages inform us about early ancestors, past contact situations, and innovations. Through language classification, it is possible to trace proto‐speech communities in time and in space. The “Words‐and‐Things” approach allows for insights into the material and sociocultural life of these proto‐speech communities. In order to investigate the causes of language dispersals, linguistic results are usually linked to data from other disciplines, such as archaeology. Methods used to relate results from multiple disciplines include correlation, direct association, and the search for common regional processes. Such multidisciplinary narratives are sometimes criticized for having circular reasoning or not being independently verifiable. A possible solution is the supplemental approach, which recognizes the differences between the data and methodologies of either discipline but proposes that they supplement each other. This, in turn, leads to better hypotheses on those parts of history for which no written texts exist. |
